Efforts to prevent the start of mining activities on the high seas — in waters outside national jurisdiction — were one of the highlights of the UN Ocean Conference, which took place this week in Lisbon.
Water pollution, destruction of marine ecosystems and negative effects that can be dragged for thousands of kilometers are among the main problems pointed out by scientists and environmentalists.
In a speech to the plenary of the conference, French President Emmanuel Macron called on the international community to unite to prevent the projects from moving forward.
“I think we really have to create a legal framework to stop mining on the high seas and not allow new activities to put these ecosystems at risk,” said the French leader.
On the first day of the conference, Palau, Fiji and Samoa —small islands in the Pacific—announced an alliance to pressure the international community to enact a moratorium on deep-sea mining until there are enough studies on the subject.
Initiatives against this type of exploitation began even before the United Nations meeting.
Two weeks ago, Chile sent a letter to the United Nations asking for a 15-year moratorium on offshore mining. At the end of May, the G7 countries issued statements stating that mining on the high seas should only take place under very strict environmental standards.
The movement of the international community takes place at a time of a certain lack of definition of the legal framework for the activity.
Considered the “last frontier” for mining, this type of exploration is still not authorized. Responsible for granting the guarantee, the ISA (International Seabed Authority) has only granted research licenses, due to the lack of an established understanding.
Experts fear, however, that a legal loophole could allow commercial exploration concessions as early as the next few years.
This is because Nauru, a small Pacific nation, invoked in 2021 a clause in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea that guarantees that countries can trigger a so-called “two-year trigger” if they judge negotiations to be excessively slow.
In the assessment of Matthew Gianni, a specialist in marine conservation and co-founder of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, the scenario is quite uncertain, with the possibility that there is a lack of control in the issuance of permits.
“These licenses would theoretically be provisional. But what does that mean? Afterwards, it would be something very difficult to reverse,” he says.
Gianni also draws attention to what would be the ISA’s lack of transparency on decision-making processes.
The International Seabed Authority has meetings in July and August to discuss the topic.
Increasingly demanded by the industry, including as essential components for electric vehicles, minerals such as nickel, cobalt, manganese and copper are the most coveted assets of the deep floor of the seas.
“Extraction activity is carried out at depths that can reach 6,000 meters. Before, until the 1960s, it was thought that there was nothing there. Now, we already know that great biodiversity”, says the expert from the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition. .
Among the more than 20 research licenses granted by ISA is one for Brazil, in the so-called Rio Grande Elevation, about 680 nautical miles off the Brazilian coast.
Despite statements by its president, France also has two offshore mining research licenses.
The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.
